


Once Upon A Time

by smile_styler (orphan_account)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Reveal, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-07-14 02:32:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7149119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/smile_styler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette was standing in front of the library. Once again, the curse of her ‘can’t say no’ problem had struck. She had been asked to read and tell stories for a few hours after school to the younger children at the library.</p><p>“Marinette, hi! Are you going to be my partner?” A familiar voice asked.</p><p>The girl in question turned to find herself face to face with the one and only Adrian Agreste.</p><p>This would be a interesting afternoon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

Marinette’s day had been rather pleasant. Though she was late, per usual, her teacher ignored it. An unusual blessing in her case. At lunch, she had packed a croissant and ate with her bestie, Alya. Who, by the way, has a crazy amount of patience for a fifteen-year-old. 

Though, while Marinette droned on about her crush, Alya ran a blog dedicated to one of the heroes of Paris, Ladybug. Alya ran the Ladyblog, the best source of Ladybug information on the Internet. Kinda funny considering Ladybug was sitting right next to her and Alya was completely clueless about it, but that’s a discussion for another day.

After lunch, the day had been fairly boring. Chloe was abnormally non-confrontational and, as a probable result, there wasn’t even a thought of Akuma all day. The worst she had to deal with was a pop quiz in chemistry. But now that school was over, she had to deal with her current situation.

Marinette was standing in front of the library. Once again, the curse of her ‘can’t say no’ problem had struck. She had been asked to read and tell stories for a few hours after school to the younger children at the library. Supposedly, another teen from her school would be joining her in the endeavor, but Marinette had yet to see anyone she recognized. Honestly, ever fiber in her being was just praying it wasn’t Chloe.

“Marinette, cheer up, this won’t be close to as bad as watching Manon.”

Marinette looked down at her ever wonderful kwami and gave her a smile. A definite positive to being the akuma-fighting super-heroine, Ladybug. A job that she first hated and now would never give up. Hawk moth would have to pry the miraculous out of her cold dead hands before she would ever let him touch those earrings.

“You’re right as always, Tikki. I suppose this could be fun.”

Marinette took a breath and headed inside. After receiving directions to where she was supposed to be reading, she weaved her way through the maze of bookshelves. Finding the area empty, she sat down on a stool and waited for her partner to arrive. 

“I guess I’m here early. Well that’s a first.” Marinette said to herself. 

“Marinette, hi! Are you going to be my partner?” A familiar voice asked.

The girl in question turned to find herself face to face with the one and only Adrian Agreste. Adrien Agreste, the model, the kindest and sweetest boy anyone could ever find, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s crush. Like always, Marinette’s mind blanked and out came her ever-ladylike unrecognizable noises. This would be a interesting afternoon.  
~~~~~~~~

Adrien sighed as he took the tablet with his schedule. Photo shoots, fencing, and Chinese lessons were all to be expected on that dreaded color coded mess of organization and misery.

“Adrien, I would like to point out the change in your schedule. After school you will be volunteering at the library. The schedule will fill you in on the rest of the details.” 

Adrien looked quickly from his father’s assistant, Natalie, to the tablet in his hand. A smile started to stretch across his face as he read about his afternoon activity. He would be reading to little children and would apparently be accompanied by a classmate. The schedule didn’t mention who that classmate would be though.

His thoughts were with the library all through the school day. No one mentioned going to the library so he was still clueless as to who exactly would be helping him. Regardless he couldn't help how excited he was to have a change in his regular routine. Especially such a positive change. 

“Hey bro, your ride’s here.” A voice broke through his thoughts.

Adrien glanced over to his best friend and flashed him a smile. Nino was one of the best parts about going to school. Having a friend that didn’t care who you were or what you owned was a foreign concept to the model until Adrien met his goofy headphone-wearing bro.

“Thanks man, I zoned out for a second. I’ll text you later.”

With that, Adrien hopped into the car. Any hope of silence was immediately shattered by a load groan.

“I want Camembert! I feel ssssttttaaaarrrrvvvveeeedddd….” 

Of course his kwami would be the one to put a damper on his attitude. Plagg tended to do that a lot though. Oh, yeah, Adrien Agreste models, fences, speaks Chinese, and saves the world as the superhero, Chat Noir. Fighting by Ladybug, he helps save Paris on a regular basis. 

While his kwami whined about his lack of Camembert, Adrien’s thoughts drifted to a certain spotted heroine. Ladybug was everything Adrien could dream about in a woman. Smart, brave, kind, and beautiful, he had only scratched the surface of knowing her. The only problem was that she hadn’t quite fallen for Chat just yet, but she would. He just knew it. In the meantime, he had one very annoying kwami to deal with.

"Plagg, your smelly cheese is in my bag. Also, how can I not dream about her! She’s amazing!” Adrien sighed.

“Whatever, I don’t understand why you would want girls over cheese, but more for me I guess.”

The kwami then ducked back into his pocket as the car pulled to a stop. Adrien got out and headed into the library. The librarian directed him to the children’s section of the library and he made his way over to the designated spot. Adrien turned the corner to find his shy pig-tailed classmate.

“Marinette, hi! Are you going to be my partner?”

Marinette visibly jumped at his sudden appearance. She tended to do that whenever he was around. He couldn’t help but wonder if she was still mad about the gum incident from when they first met.

“Sorry did I scare you?” He asked.  
~~~~~~~~~

“Sorry did I scare you?” Adrian asked, concern washing over his face. 

He’s so sweet… The lovesick girl couldn’t help but internally swoon. 

Realizing he was still waiting for an answer she stuttered out an affirmative and headed over to the kids with her apparent partner. Adrien gently took the first book handed to him and began to read. 

Adopting a new voice with each character and immediately rapturing the children’s attention, Adrien was a natural. The girl found herself just as interested as the younger listeners and sat down on the carpet to join them. As the story came to a close, Marinette found herself already morning the loss of his voice.

It wasn't a surprise to Marinette that Adrien would be good with kids. Adrien was good at everything he put his mind to. Modeling, fencing, and Mandarin were only some of the things he had mastered. Marinette couldn’t help but put him on a pedestal. That was probably why she had such a hard time speaking to him like a normal human but she was getting progressively better. Granted her improvement was going very, very slowly, but progress is progress. Right?

A gentle tug on her sleeve brought her back to earth. “Will you read this Miss?” A little blonde girl with big brown eyes asked. Marinette gave a sugar sweet smile and gently took the book from her hands.

” I’d love to.” 

Maybe this won't be so bad.  
~~~~~~~~~~

Adrien couldn’t help but notice the sweet exchange happening as he finished up the book he was reading. He recalled Marinette babysat so at least she would be familiar with watching children. Which is kind of a relief, considering Adrien barely had contact with any kids whatsoever. 

The model gladly gave his seat to Marinette and sat with their tiny charges on the floor. He shot Marinette a smile and got ready for a story. Marinette responded with a blush and shy smile then directed her attention to the book in her hand.

As Marinette started to read, the library started to melt away and he was the hero saving the princess. It reminded him of when his mother used to read to him. It had been a long time since someone had that effect on him and that fact strengthened his resolve. He had always wanted to be friends with Marinette, but he wasn't sure how to make her comfortable with him. But, by the end of today, Adrien wanted to make sure he could call Marinette, friend. He tuned back into her reading figuring it would probably help if he actually listened to what she was saying.

“And, once the dragon was vanquished, the valiant knight rescued the princess from the dungeon and was rewarded the only way a loyal knight ever should be, with kiss.” Marinette finished, closing the book with a flourish.

Knights were rewarded with a kiss from princesses. Common knowledge. So common that now Adrien was fighting down a blush and the urge to ask where his kiss was. Maybe being Chat Noir was starting to go to his head a little bit. With Chat Noir in mind, he stood and his eyes caught on The Cat in The Hat book. Which, of course, gave Adrien an idea.

So, as they switched out again, Adrien grabbed The Cat in The Hat book, looked directly at Marinette, and remarked, “Should I read this clawsome book next? Or do you think that it would be a catrastrophe?” She visibly tensed.

“Wow Adrien, that was… terrible. And I thought models were supposed to be cool,” The girl replied teasingly.

“What? My furriously clawver puns didn’t impuress mew?” Adrien adds with pure delight. His genius was rewarded with a smirk and an eye roll. 

Maybe a little Chat Noir was all it took to make her relax.

~~~~~~~

Marinette was shocked to say the least. Adrien, her beloved, perfect Adrien, was punning. A lot. Sure she expected him to have some faults, but it never occurred to her punning would ever be one of them. But, for some unfathomable reason, punning made him happy and God strike her down right now if she ever took that away from him. So, she would just have to survive with an extremely punny husband partner for now. Not like she didn’t deal with punny people all the time anyway.

With a resigned sigh, Marinette took a seat and directed her attention to one smirking Adrien. Man, was it hard to think of him as perfect when he was acting like such a dork. He seemed to be waiting for her. Why does the world like torturing her?

“What are you smirking about?” Marinette felt he wouldn't start reading until she asked.

His smirk turned into a full blown grin as he makes known his thoughts, “I was just thinking that you should improve your catitude before we start.”

The children looked at her annoyed face then at his delighted face. Taking both into account, they stopped for a second then all broke out laughing. This only seemed to spur Adrien on more because he made about five more cat puns before actually reading the book. Once he was done, she realized there was only way to stop him. Another resigned sigh and she spoke.

“I’m sure you think those apawlling puns are amewzing but if you don't stop, I'll kick your tail so bad your rich hide will be on wellfur.” 

~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m sure you think those apawlling puns are amewzing but if you don't stop, I'll kick your tail so bad your rich hide will be on wellfur.” Marinette said with a straight face turned smirk.

Adrien found himself fighting down another Marinette induced blush. His Lady was the sole rule of his heart, right? Marinette was undoubtedly pretty but he posed with pretty models all the time. It had never affected him. So why did Marinette keep having this effect on him? 

They spent the rest of their time punning back and forth about everything they could think of and greatly entertaining their small audience. The children seemed to love their punning almost as much as the stories they read. A few kids even contributed in the pun war. When the kids started to pun with him Adrien couldn't help but voice his opinion.

“Look Marinette, they grow up so fast.” Adrien said, dramatically wiping an invisible tear from his eye.

Which made Marinette scoff and respond, “Yeah, now they’re punning. Great going, you've ruined them.”

Adrien feigned hurt then just laughed. He would never forget this afternoon. Adrien’s time at the library honestly passed to quickly for his liking and all too soon, the kid’s parents were here to pick them up. Marinette’s voice woke him from his thoughts.

“Well, all the kids are gone. Guess I'll see you Monday.”

“Yeah I guess,” a thought came to Adrien. ”um, Marinette, I…ah… never got your number. Could I…um… maybe have it?”

“Um… sure, I'll get out my phone and we can trade.” 

Marinette offered him a shy smile and retrieved her phone from her purse. Once they exchanged numbers he readied himself to head home and not see Marinette his friends for a whole two days. At least he had Marinette’s number now. Adrien smiled to himself.

“Adrien and Marinette, correct?” An unknown voice said.

They both turned to see the librarian walking towards them. Adrien recognized her from the front desk earlier. What would she want? Eh. Who cares? Anything was better than going home at this point.

“Um yes?” Marinette had elected to speak when Adrien hadn’t.

“I was wondering if you both wouldn't mind coming in the same time every Friday for the rest of the month?” The librarian continues, “Adrien, I called your father and he said he would reorganize your schedule if you really would like to do this.” 

“I'll do it if Marinette will,” Adrien confessed then turned to his classmate.

“Then I guess you’ll see us next week,” Marinette confirms with a blush. 

With a smile the librarian concludes the conversation with an, “I guess I'll see you both then” and walks away. Adrien grinning from ear to ear when he looks at Marinette. Her smirk deters him a little, though.

“What?” He defends.

Her smirk just gets bigger when she comments, “I didn't know you enjoyed my company so much.” He blushes as she continues, “My parents are outside so I'll text you later. Bye.”

She leaves a brilliantly red Adrien in her wake. As Adrien heads out behind her and sits in the car. He rolls up the window between his chauffeur and himself then proceeds to smile at his phone. 

“Oh fantastic, another girl for you to obsess over. Just what you needed,” Plagg insinuates, floating out of his bag, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“What? I told you before, Plagg, Marinette is just a friend.” 

Adrien’s mood could not be dampened with a grumpy kwami. His day was great and to top it off, he got Marinette’s number. Which he should totally text. Right now. He smiled and pulled out his phone. So, the model texted his princess with a grin on his face, a disapproving kwami in the background, and an unexplainable fluttery feeling in his stomach.


	2. Part 2

Alya was sitting in her seat waiting for her tardy best friend. She was supposedly listening to the teacher but to pass the time she was writing a new article on the Ladyblog. A loud bang draws her attention and signals the entrance of her bestie.

After stumbling out some excuse about geese, Marinette headed to her seat by Alya. The rest of the school day goes pretty normally for the two. Marinette obsessed over Adrien and Alya obsessed over Ladybug, so, the usual. Alya figured since usually her best friend had nothing to do after school, she would ask her to hang out after school. But at the end of school, Marinette runs off mumbling something about books and small demons. So Alya turned to her next best option, Nino.

Alya hunts down Nino to find him wishing his best friend goodbye. Once the blonde’s limo pulls away, Alya confronts the head phone wearing boy.

“Hey Nino, what’s up?”

“Nothing much. Well Adrien was a little off, but that was about it.” The aforementioned boy replied after turning to look at Alya.

“Really? Interesting…” Alya slowly began to smirk, “ Marinette was off at the end of the day, too.”

Nino studied the would-be reporter’s reaction. Her smirk scared him, but honestly, everything about Alya scared him a little. Not that he minded being a little scared of her. Trying to follow her train of thought, Nino offered his opinion.

“You think their weirdness had something to do with each other? What if their secretly dating?!”

Alya looked at him disbelievingly. Maybe not his best idea, but he tried. Why was she being so judge mental. So the boy tried to defend himself.

“What? It could happen.”

Alya just started to list the reasons it, in fact, couldn't happen. Which resulted in a pouty Nino. Leading to a laughing Alya. Forcing her to pat him on the back till he felt better. A pretty good way for them to end the week.

~~~~~~~  
Alya sighs. She hadn't heard from Marinette all weekend except for a few confusing texts and was dying to know what they meant. And, of course, Marinette was late. Alya hears the quiet creak of a door opening.

Speak of the devil…

Alya watches Marinette sneak into the class and slide next to her. Marinette gives her an apologetic smile and turns to stare at Adrien’s head, only to find said boy giving her a huge smile. Then to Alya’s utter amazement, Marinette smiles back then winks! That’s where poor Alya loses her grasp on any sense of normalcy for the rest of her Monday.

After class, Alya watches with Nino as their best friends chat away like Marinette never had stuttered a day in her life. After Nino shooting her a smug smile, Alya decided she was getting to the bottom of this. So, she calmly dragged her best friend away from Adrien mid- conversation to an empty hallway. Then, voice dripping with sarcasm, she interrogated Marinette.

“Anything happen over the weekend you want to share?”

This question caused a huge grin to spread across Marinette’s face. After a tiny bit of squealing, Marinette started to explain the events of Friday. Alya couldn't believe her bestie’s luck.

“So basically you finally realized that Adrien is a human?”

“Alyaaaaaa” Marinette groaned.

“Sorry, continue,” Alya loved annoying Marinette to pieces.

“So as I was saying, after we had exchanged numbers, the librarian came up and asked us if we wanted to come read to the kids every Friday for the rest of the month. Before I had a chance to answer, Adrien blurts out,’ I'll do it if Marinette will.’ So of course I say yes and we were texting all weekend!”Marinette finished with anther squeal.

As shocked as Alya was, she couldn't help but smile. “Sounds like you have Adrien wrapped around your finger, girl. I'm so proud.”

And she was.

~~~~~~  
Nino joked around, but he wasn't dense enough to not notice the dopey smile on Adrien's face when Marinette was “gently” pulled away by her best friend. Nor was he gonna ignore the sigh following said dopey smile.

“So Marinette, eh?” Nino couldn't help how smug he sounded.

“What! We're just friends!” Adrien defended.

“Sure you are…” Was this guy kidding?

“You know how I feel about Ladybug!” Adrien whispered.

Nino knew all about Adrien's super hero crush. He also knew Adrien didn't have a chance unless he was Chat Noir and there was no way that was possible. Adrien was too busy to save Paris and, though he was goofy, there was no way Adrien would be dumb enough to start spewing puns and flirt in the middle of battle.

“Dude, give it up. You know you don’t have a chance with her, right?”

“It could happen!” This guy was delusional.

“Sure it could. But if you really like Ladybug so much, what's with all the flirting with Marinette?” Nino could not understand how dense his best friend was.

After Adrien profusely denied flirting, Nino dropped it. Alya and Marinette walked in then any ways so this crush conversation would have to be put off. Besides, If his friend wanted to ignore his obvious feelings, then so be it.

~~~~~~  
A few weeks went by and Alya was a bit disappointed that Adrien hadn't already asked Marinette out. They helped out together at the library, flirted and punned in school, and generally enjoyed each other's company. What was Adrien's hold up?

In fact, they were talking right now. And, wait, what was that? Every time Marinette looked away, he got this love struck look on his face and just kinda stared at her. As soon as Marinette looked back though, he was Mr. Cool Model and acting like wasn't just creepily staring at her.

Alya had to get this on record. So she waited for Marinette to look away and snapped a picture of Adrien’s face. She wasn't going to show Marinette though, she was showing Adrien. Alya smirked evilly and headed towards the poor boy. And then the wall exploded.

“ I am Spark! I'll teach you to treat firefighters like no big deal!”

“Oh come on!” Alya really hated her luck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh come on!"

Adrien and Marinette faces both hardened and they ran to find somewhere to transform. Due to their closeness before the attack however, they ended up running different ways to hide behind the same wall.

“Tikki/Plagg transform me!”

They both turned and watched masks appear over familiar faces. Marinette was in shock and, well, Adrien looked like he was gonna explode with happiness. Seriously, he was smiling so hard that it looked like he was trying to split his face open.

"You jumped in front of Timebreaker and Dark Cupid for me!” It's not what Marinette meant to say.

Adrien crosses his arms with an incredulous look. Was this girl kidding?

“You jumped into a T-Rex's mouth!”

“Well you tried to take on an army of knights by yourself!”

“You almost let yourself get sacrificed to an Egyptian god!”

Before they could finish their arguably dumb conversation, the akuma burst through the wall. Now our heroes went on autopilot to fight the akuma, but the tension was still noticeable. They eventually defeated the akuma with a fire extinguisher and some creative thinking.

“Pound it!” They did their ritual without thinking and looked at each other for a moment.Then Ladybug started giggling.

“I'm sorry I kinda freaked out… Forgive me?” Marinette decided she’d be the one to put up the white flag.

“Like I could ever be mad at the prettiest girl I've ever met.” Adrien was horrified he actually said that out loud.

It was Marinette's turn to have a face splitting grin. “Well I'm glad you think so. Now come on, handsome boy.”

After Adrien had a blush fest and stuttered on some words, they both detransformed. Once detransformed, Tikki and Plagg demanded introductions, so Adrien was forced to get a hold of himself. If he was being honest, it was really a blessing in disguise.

"Plagg, this is Marinette."

"So you're the girl who Adrien's been obsessed about."

"Plagg!"

"What?"

Tikki noticed her wielder's crush needed a save so she decided to step in.

"Hello Adrien, I'm Tikki! It's great to finally meet you."

Adrien smiled gratefully at Tikki. At least Marinette got the nicer kwami.

"Nice to meet you too."

Tikki grinned deviously then continued.

"With all Marinette talks about you, I'm not sure I really needed an introduction though." 

Marinette started awkwardly laugh and plan how to get Tikki back for that and Adrien guessed all kwamis have their negatives.

Still blushing, Marinette realized that they still have somewhere to be. "Hey Adrien, we still have class. We really shouldn't be any later."

With that, the kwamis darted into their respective hiding spots and Marinette and Adrien raced for class.

~~~~~~  
Nino was a little worried. Akumas could be dangerous and even though Ladybug’s magic normally fixed everything, there was always a chance something could go wrong. So the fact that neither Adrien nor Marinette was back was a tiny bit unsettling.

“Sorry we're late!” Nino breathed a sigh of relief.

The two spit out some pathetic excuse about a cat in a tree and went to their seats. During class, Nino looked over to see Adrien doodling something. No, someone. Nino knew those pigtails. Just friends, huh.

“So whatcha drawing?” Nino was gonna milk this for all it was worth.

“Marinette.” Adrien dreamily sighed.

Well that was disappointing. “What?! No denial? No shame? Come on man, you're stealing the joy out of me!”

“Sorry? Anyways, how should I ask Marinette out? What do you even say to a girl like that? Hey princess, wanna go see a movie tonight? I've wanted to ask you to the movies for weeks but every time I look at you my brain shuts down and all that comes out are puns?!” Adrien had completely lost it. And apparently they both forgot Marinette was still sitting behind him.

“Pick me up at seven.” Adrien's face was priceless as he turned to look at Marinette.

Nino started cackling as Adrien just stared at Marinette. Marinette was blushing a little but smiling none the less. As for Alya, she just looked downright smug.

“I guess it's a date then?” Was what Adrien finally came up with.

“Yeah, it's a date.”

And that's how this once upon a time ended with a happily ever after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> credit to my-insanity-is-an-artform for the reveal idea. I changed it a bit but it's still mostly theirs.


End file.
